How to Read the Bible: Approaches and Translations

There are as many different ways to read the Bible as there are people to read it. Whether you and the Bible have barely met or are trying to rebuild an old relationship, a fresh perspective can work wonders. Without pretending to exhaust all the possibilities involved in Bible reading, this chapter skims some of the options every reader has when approaching or reapproaching this massive, diverse, and frequently misunderstood book.

This chapter is from the book

There
are
as many
different
ways
to read
the
Bible
as there
are
people
to read
it.
Whether
you
and
the
Bible
have
barely
met
or are
trying
to rebuild
an old
relationship,
a fresh
perspective
can
work
wonders.
Without
pretending
to exhaust
all
the
possibilities
involved
in Bible
reading,
this
chapter
skims
some
of the
options
every
reader
has
when
approaching
or reapproaching
this
massive,
diverse,
and
frequently
misunderstood
book.

Three
Ways
of Looking
at the
Bible

Most people read the Bible in at least one of three ways:

As holy scripture

As history

As literature

As Holy Scripture

In the previous chapter, we discussed various beliefs regarding where
Scripture comes from and classified them into three basic categories:

Fundamentalism—Holds that God is the author of the
Bible. Biblical fundamentalists believe that the Bible is a holy and divine
product and means what it says at face value (except in cases where the
metaphorical intent is clear, such as when Jesus tells his parables).

Modernism—Holds that the Bible was written by
human beings inspired by their relationships with God. Biblical modernists also
tend to see the Bible as holy, but believe that context, metaphor, and the
limitations of its human authors should be taken into account.

Secularism—Holds that the Bible is purely a
product of human creativity. Biblical secularists believe that the Bible
represents a literary tradition that has a great deal to say about human nature
and the history and culture of the ancient Middle East, but they do not believe
that God was involved in its origins.

Whether you believe that the Bible is the work of God, the work of human
beings, or a combination of the two, it can still be a useful devotional aid.
And if you believe that the Bible is a holy book, it has an additional virtue:
It brings you closer to God.

There are many ways to read Holy Scripture, but everyone who draws religious
meaning from the Bible does so as part of a group, individually, or through some
mix of the two approaches.

There are several important advantages to group Bible reading: It exposes you
to the viewpoints of others and gives you a way of expressing and clarifying
your own understanding of the Bible. Group Bible reading is practiced in almost
every church, but it receives particular attention in the Roman Catholic Church
and in most mainline Protestant churches. These churches use
lectionaries—books that reorganize the Bible into short readings
that function well for church use, either during formal services or during small
group prayer. The Jewish tradition also uses a lectionary approach; every week,
one is given a parsha ("portion") of the Torah to read and
study, preferably in a group setting.

NOTE

For most of its history, the Bible has been read aloud—heard rather
than examined. Reading the Bible aloud or hearing it read (as it often is in
religious services) is a wonderful way to connect to this ancient approach to
Scripture.

The most common place to read the Bible as Holy Scripture in a group setting
is in a house of worship, although it is not always necessary to join a
religious community to participate in its Bible study programs. When in doubt,
it is always a good idea to call and ask.

In Judaism, individual Torah study has always been encouraged. Within
Christianity, however, individual study of the Bible is a relatively new
phenomenon that came about during the fifteenth century and the height of the
Protestant Reformation. Until that time, most people did not own a Bible or read
it as they would a book—primarily because most people were illiterate.
(Then again, at that point in history very few people had books, either.)

Individual Bible study can be challenging for those of us who cannot read
Hebrew or Greek and do not fully grasp the context of each Bible verse.
Fortunately, a good study Bible can solve this problem. In Appendix F,
"Choosing a Study Bible," I’ve listed a few of my personal
favorites. Online Bibles (such as those described in Appendix C, "The Top 25
Bible Websites") can also be useful, because they allow you to search the
entire Bible for a word or phrase with only a few keystrokes.

Lectio Divina

The ancient Christian meditation practice of lectio divina, or
"sacred reading," has recently gained newfound popularity (particularly
among Roman Catholics). Although lectio divina is best learned with a community
of other practitioners, the four basic steps involved are easy to learn:

Lectio (reading)—Slow, contemplative
reading of a text. (If you’re having trouble choosing one, try one of the
passages in Appendix B, "Great Quotations from the Bible.") Do not spend
much time rationally analyzing the text, and do not try to work through it
quickly; instead, let your mind linger on the individual words as if
you’re listening to someone speak slowly and calmly. For this example,
let’s use Ecclesiastes 1—one of the most depressing chapters in the
entire Bible.

Meditatio (meditation)—At some point
during the process of lectio, one passage should speak to you more than
others. Spend time repeating the passage, silently or aloud, letting it sink in.
My mind settles on the second half of verse 8: "The eye is not satisfied
with seeing, or the ear filled with hearing."

Oratio (prayer)—With your mind still
focused on meditatio, recite the passage over and over. The words
become random syllables, voice music, nothing more. But on some level, the idea
behind the words is still rattling around in my mind. If the words begin to mean
something again, if they register as if another person is speaking them, I
recite them more quickly until they become syllables again; if I completely lose
focus, I recite the passage more slowly so that the idea can sink in
again.

Contemplatio (contemplation)—If you feel
yourself drifting into a meditative state, let go of all words and silently
settle into the experience.

Controversy

Even among people who find religious meaning in the Bible, there is a great
deal of disagreement over whether it is meant to provide an accurate history.
Fundamentalists tend to argue that every event mentioned in the texts happened
exactly as described; modernists tend to argue that the Bible was not meant to
function as a history book; and secularists tend to see biblical histories as
flawed but interesting products of their time.

As History

Although the Bible was not written to function as a history book in any
contemporary sense of the term, it is the only book of its time to study the
Christian movement in depth and the only book to chronicle the history of
ancient Israel in any meaningful way. Reading the Bible as history can be a
compelling experience, placing you in the mind of the ancient writers in a way
that few ancient texts can.

Judges, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, the Gospel of Luke, and the Book
of Acts are especially useful for those seeking to study the Bible as history
because these books are, in effect, histories. Judges, Kings, and Chronicles
essentially tell the story of ancient Israel after the time of Joshua; the
Gospel of Luke is the most objective and historical of the four Gospels; and the
Book of Acts (written by the same author as Luke) tells the story of the early
church in a fairly direct way. Few books of the Bible are completely
devoid of history, but some are more oriented toward history than others.
Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, for example, cannot be read as historical narratives,
and neither can most of the New Testament epistles.

As Literature

Whatever anyone might believe about the Bible’s religious value or
historicity, few can deny that the Bible is one of the greatest literary
anthologies ever produced. The Hebrew Bible is certainly the pride of the
ancient Near East; nowhere else can the same level of complex characterization,
the same detailed plots, and the same varying literary forms be found.

Even the Bible’s harshest critics acknowledge its literary merits.
Books particularly well-loved by literary scholars include Exodus, Ruth, Job,
Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, Isaiah, the Gospel of Luke, the Gospel of
John, and the Revelation (Apocalypse) of St. John.

NOTE

A great resource for comparing Bible translations side-by-side is the Unbound
Bible at Biola University (unbound.biola.edu).